Modifying a RB mold

[gzig5]

I asked this on another forum, but there doesn't seem to be anyone home over there so I will try it here.

I don't have one to measure so I am going to ask the question. Is there enough meat in the walls of a Lyman .427 or.440 round ball mold to recut it to a 350-450gr .458 bullet for a 45/70?
I can't tell from pictures if there would be enough material between the mold cavity and the handle slots. Or to put it another way, what is the dimension across the slots on a RB mold?
Greg

[44man]

Yes, as long as the nose of the boolit does not exceed the heighth of the blocks.

[leftiye]

If the lube grooves weren't more than .015" deep you might squeak it in to the .427 mold(and the resulting mold was .457" or bigger), or if your design put the grooves elsewhere. It's not about meat, it's about whether you have enough material for lube grooves. Either mold would work fine for a paper patched mold with no grooves.

[gzig5]

Thanks guys. I hadn't really considered the depth of the lube groove. If I'm not careful I could end up with one WIDE groove.